The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Sock, Inc.
"A recent study of our customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process, which ensures that our socks are strong enough to last for two years. We have always advertised our use of the Endure process, but the new study shows that despite our socks' durability, our average customer actually purchases new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, our customers surveyed in our largest market, northeastern United States cities, say that they most value Dura-Socks' stylish appearance and availability in many colors. These findings suggest that we can increase our profits by discontinuing use of the Endure manufacturing process."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The memo presented by the vice-president of marketing at Dura-Sock Inc. is rife with fallacies and illogical argument with a motive to strengthen the conclusion. The vice president explains the results of different surveys based on the Dura-Socks produced using the patented Endure manufacturing process and conclude that the findings suggest that they can increase their profit by discontinuing the process. The dubious claims made by the vice president does not support the underlying conclusion.
Firstly, the study mentioned in the memo is incompetence and does not provide enough information to understand the findings. According to the memo, the study suggests that the company is wasting the money it spends on its Endure manufacturing process. But no sales information is provided in the memo. It fails to answer the questions like What are the current profits being made by the company on the specific product? What are the sales distribution of the Dura-Sock? Hence, it is impossible to forecast the sales of Dura-Socks manufactured without the use of the Endure process
Secondly, the memo suggests that the Dura-Socks are durable and enough to last for two years but their study shows that on average their customers purchase new Dura-Socks every three months. Indeed, it is necessary to understand customer’s demands and needs for a company to grow its business. The various surveys are and studies aim to provide a voice to the customers. Thus, it is important to have intensive studies and surveys. The study mentioned in the memo fails to explain the information about the sample of customers. Why do the customers take new Dura-Socks? For whom are they buying the socks? On a tangent, if the customers are buying new Dura-Socks every three months, it might be the indication of the product being successful in the market.
Lastly, the memo provides information regarding their largest market, in the north-eastern United States. It states that the customers value the Dura-Sock's stylish appearance and availability in many colors. The question asked from the customers might not be intuitive. A better question would have been whether the customers find the durability of the socks useful or not. The information extracted from the survey does not correlate with the durability of the socks and hence, it does not strengthen the conclusion.
In conclusion, the vice-president of Dura-Socks Inc. should undertake surveys regarding the durability of the socks, keeping in mind the sample of customers they are surveying. The presumptuous facts cannot strengthen an argument and hence, the arguments do not prove the validity and the feasibility of the conclusion.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 427 350
No. of Characters: 2207 1500
No. of Different Words: 189 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.546 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.169 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.884 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 163 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 133 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 97 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 76 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.792 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.478 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.417 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.31 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.503 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.108 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 410, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ir profit by discontinuing the process. The dubious claims made by the vice preside...
^^^
Line 3, column 563, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...a-Socks manufactured without the use of the Endure process Secondly, the memo suggests ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, hence, if, lastly, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, thus, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2266.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 427.0 441.139720559 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30679156909 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54576487731 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.96980436161 2.78398813304 107% => OK
Unique words: 195.0 204.123752495 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.456674473068 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 693.0 705.55239521 98% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 60.0739544229 57.8364921388 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.64 119.503703932 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.08 23.324526521 73% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.92 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.369357788419 0.218282227539 169% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.10980502894 0.0743258471296 148% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.103052656442 0.0701772020484 147% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.207554460101 0.128457276422 162% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0632071239937 0.0628817314937 101% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.22 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.33 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.